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The myth of the eight-hour sleep

bbc.co.uk

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Re: The myth of the eight-hour sleep

#71

Post by bryanlarsen »

adavies42 wrote: post #64
downx3 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I must be seriously broken. I can even enjoy a cup of coffee at the bedside and still sleep. Not that I do that often. Falling asleep for me is easy. I pretty much always wake up about four hours later. Then sometimes I remain wide awake for another few hours. After which I'm ready for sleep again. The second bout is pretty glorious. This does mean however, that I need to pretty much put 11 hours aside each night, if…

i'm basically immune to caffeine, afaict. i frequently come home late, drink a diet coke or whatever, and head straight to bed. i've gone back and forth between drinking a six pack of diet mountain dew a day and nothing and never noticed a difference. i can slam two bottles of Bawls (160mg) or eat 3 Fooshes ( http://www.thinkgeek.com/caffeine/candy/6e27 , >300mg total) and still take (and want) a nap. if i gave mysel…

I doubt you're immune, just addicted. You say you can go a day without caffeine. I challenge you to go 3 days with absolutely no caffeine. Absolutely nothing, so no decaf, no chocolate. I bet it makes you feel horrible. If so, you're addicted, like the vast majority.

Re: The myth of the eight-hour sleep

#72

Post by recursive »

joering2 wrote: post #41
rokhayakebe wrote: post #24

Just get rid of your alarm clock, and wake up when your body tells you to.

hm, sorry to ask, but: are you employed? most folks I know, including me, have serious problems with sleep. it seems like we tap into each corner of human body and understand less or more how it works, but yet there is no real science behind how sleep works and how much of it we need. Heck, afaik scientists still argue why we need sleep at all and whats the main reasoning behind it. But not to brag too much: sometime…

I'm employed. I don't use alarms. I just go to bed early enough so that I'll naturally want to wake up in time for work.

Re: The myth of the eight-hour sleep

#73

Post by bryanlarsen »

onemoreact wrote: post #22
mmwako wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks Charlie! How did you find out that you were hyper-sensitive? In my case, I don't drink colas, but I love that hot coffee in the morning...

Ideally, you should keep a sleep journal for 30 days before you try to change anything about your sleep habits. As to the actual experiment don't drink any tea/coffee/colas for 30 days and see how it effects your sleep patterns. PS: And I do mean zero for the full 30 days if you have any caffeine you have to start over.

Caffeine has really nasty withdrawal symptoms for most people. I highly recommend slowly cutting out caffeine rather than going cold turkey.

Re: The myth of the eight-hour sleep

#74

Post by AkThhhpppt »

jsherry wrote: post #67

"In the early 1990s, psychiatrist Thomas Wehr conducted an experiment in which a group of people were plunged into darkness for 14 hours every day for a month." 'Plunging' people into 14 hours of darkness per day? Does this sound like a scientifically sound way to determine the natural sleeping patterns of humans?

Subtract artificial light, and how long would you be "plunged" into darkness every night this time of year at your latitude? Enforcing prehistoric lighting conditions at night and observing the resulting sleep pattern seems like a decent of finding someone's "natural" sleep pattern to me...

Re: The myth of the eight-hour sleep

#75

Post by dan00 »

charlieflowers wrote: post #5
mmwako wrote: post #2

Oh my God. This could change my life. One lifelong problem I've got is sleeping. I have great trouble falling asleep, and my sleeping patterns are very uncommon: some days I sleep 12 hours, some 5, but I'm usually very tired because of this. However, I used to think I had a "gift" of being really creative and having my best ideas just before sleep, just waking up, and during insomnia episodes. However, I've discovere…

I only found out recently (well into my adult life) that I am hyper-sensitive to caffeine. One cup of coffee in the morning will keep me up till 3 am at night. This tricked me into thinking that I'm an extreme night owl, and it kept me from ever getting really good sleep. Now, I've quit caffeinated beverages entirely, and I get tired around 11:30 pm every night, and I sleep fantastically well. I wake up naturally aro…

For me it's TV. Especially bad for me is watching before going to bed. TV keeps me awake, stimulates me. After watching I've problems falling asleep, and the sleep itself isn't recreative. I don't feel really awake after such a night.

Re: The myth of the eight-hour sleep

#76

Post by pnathan »

joering2 wrote: post #41
rokhayakebe wrote: post #24

Just get rid of your alarm clock, and wake up when your body tells you to.

hm, sorry to ask, but: are you employed? most folks I know, including me, have serious problems with sleep. it seems like we tap into each corner of human body and understand less or more how it works, but yet there is no real science behind how sleep works and how much of it we need. Heck, afaik scientists still argue why we need sleep at all and whats the main reasoning behind it. But not to brag too much: sometime…

I've found if I go to bed early enough and focus on rising at the same time every day (this includes weekends), after a few weeks, I will begin waking up at that time. It's nice to have an alarm, but waking before the alarm is exceedingly restful.

Re: The myth of the eight-hour sleep

#77

Post by wccrawford »

rokhayakebe wrote: post #24

Just get rid of your alarm clock, and wake up when your body tells you to.

I have an alarm clock, but it's only for emergencies.

For a long time, I used to wake up about 2 minutes before the alarm. Every single morning.

Lately, though, I've been waking up 20-60 minutes early. I just shrug and decide whether I feel like I need the extra time, or if I should do something with it. I usually get up and do something.

Re: The myth of the eight-hour sleep

#78

Post by adavies42 »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #71
adavies42 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i'm basically immune to caffeine, afaict. i frequently come home late, drink a diet coke or whatever, and head straight to bed. i've gone back and forth between drinking a six pack of diet mountain dew a day and nothing and never noticed a difference. i can slam two bottles of Bawls (160mg) or eat 3 Fooshes ( http://www.thinkgeek.com/caffeine/candy/6e27 , >300mg total) and still take (and want) a nap. if i gave mysel…

I doubt you're immune, just addicted. You say you can go a day without caffeine. I challenge you to go 3 days with absolutely no caffeine. Absolutely nothing, so no decaf, no chocolate. I bet it makes you feel horrible. If so, you're addicted, like the vast majority.

i'll be happy to do so again. (well, not so happy about the chocolate part....) (i hate coffee on taste principles, so decaf isn't even in the picture, all my caffeine these days comes from diet soda and chocolate.) i'll get back to you on the results.

Re: The myth of the eight-hour sleep

#79

Post by preetkimausam »

mchafkin wrote: post #70

The New York Times took on this topic a few years back in a very good article that argued that the whole idea of the 8-hour sleep was invented by the mattress industry (and other purveyors of sleep products), and that humans don't need anywhere near 8 hours of continuous sleep. Ironically, all of the industry's marketing makes people anxious about getting enough sleep--and makes it harder for them to get to sleep (th…

Western consumerism is going to change human lives for bad.

Re: The myth of the eight-hour sleep

#80

Post by joering2 »

recursive wrote: post #72
joering2 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

hm, sorry to ask, but: are you employed? most folks I know, including me, have serious problems with sleep. it seems like we tap into each corner of human body and understand less or more how it works, but yet there is no real science behind how sleep works and how much of it we need. Heck, afaik scientists still argue why we need sleep at all and whats the main reasoning behind it. But not to brag too much: sometime…

I'm employed. I don't use alarms. I just go to bed early enough so that I'll naturally want to wake up in time for work.

so you should say that.

this:

> Just get rid of your alarm clock, and wake up when your body tells you to.

means you are telling me and everyone else to get a rid of your [mine] alarm clock.

Guess not everyones body acts the same, right?

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